The Influence of Bureaucratic Behavior on Land Apportionment in China: The Informal Process

Abstract

In the early 1990s China experienced phenomenal, massive, speculative land development that had long range impacts on China's sustainable development. The authors attempt to examine the administrative framework of the current land-apportionment system from the perspectives both of formal or legal and of informal or quasi-legal processes. In particular, they focus on the detrimental consequences of the informal process of land apportionment, which has virtually overridden the formal process in recent years. They also cautiously scrutinize the underlying reasons for land misapportionment. They argue that the informal process is difficult to control and it will continue to impede the normal and healthy development of China's land market in the foreseeable future.